Local councils have spent millions on incentive payments for private landlords, encouraging them to house homeless families, Generation Rent has revealed.
Research from the group has found 37 councils spent over £31m in 2024/25 in one-off incentive payments to landlords.
This was in relation to households who had approached local authorities as homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Generation Rent had sent Freedom of Information Requests to all 32 London councils, and 10 outside London, relating to the practice of one-off payments being made to landlords.
It was calculated that out of the 37 authorities that replied, an average of 292 payments were made a year with an average yearly spend of nearly £850,000.
Manchester City Council had the highest overall sum with £3,345,411 spent on such incentive payments during this time.
London councils accounted for the majority of these overall payments, paying out over 324m to landlords in 2024/25.
Ben Twomey, CEO at Generation Rent, said that although everyone needed a home the data revealed the “wild west” state of the PRS.
“The soaring cost of renting and the government’s decision to freeze the Local Housing Allowance has put councils across the country in a near impossible position,” said Ben.
“In a desperate bid to avoid placing people in temporary accommodation, they’re forced to pay individual landlords sometimes tens of thousands of pounds just for them to agree to rent out their home.
“It’s a senseless waste of our public money.”
Generation Rent is using the findings to urge the chancellor to unfreeze the Local Housing Allowance at the upcoming Autumn Budget.
Additionally, the group is calling on the government to give metro mayors more power to limit rent increases.
